Huawei caught cheating on benchmark test

3DMark, a benchmark software has removed from its results some of Huawei’s smartphones. The reason? The Chinese company programmed them to detect the use of a benchmark and thus deceive the real capabilities of phones.

As was the case with other manufacturers’ devices, the Huawei P20, P20 Pro, Nova 3 and Honor Play increased their performance when benchmarking software was running. Interestingly, Huawei did not deny the charges against him.

The cheating was unearthed earlier this week by AnandTech. The site noted irregularities in the benchmarking results:

“As part of our phone comparison analysis, we often use additional power and performance tests on our benchmarks. In testing the new phones, Honor Play had strange results. Compared to the Huawei P20 devices tested earlier in the year, which have the same SoC, the results were also a little less good and just as strange.

“In our P20 review, we noted that the P20’s performance had decreased compared to the Mate 10. Since we had encountered similar issues on the Mate 10 that had been resolved with a firmware update, we did not too much on the subject and we decided to focus on other parts of the review.

“After some tests, what Huawei and Honor seemed to be doing became clear: the new devices have a benchmarking detection mechanism that allows a much higher power limit for the SoC with a much more generous thermal system. In the end, on some whitelisted applications, the device performs very well compared to what the user can expect from other similar titles that are not in the whitelist. It consumes energy, reduces the efficiency of the unit and reduces the life of the battery.

“That sounds pretty blatant about what Huawei and, apparently, Honor had done: the new devices are endowed with a reference detection mechanism In the end, on some whitelisted apps, the device is very performance compared to what users can expect from other similar titles, which consumes energy, reduces unit efficiency and reduces battery life. ”

UL, the company behind the 3DMark benchmarking software, has studied things and found that using a “private” version of 3DMark gave results very different from those of the version of the application found in Google Play. The company said:

“We found that the scores of the 3DMark public application were up to 47% higher than the scores of the private app, even though the tests are identical. With the 3DMark public application, these devices seem to use a hidden “performance mode” that replaces the typical power profile of devices. The difference in scores tells us that devices simply recognize the 3DMark app by name rather than adapting to the type of work in the test. ”

As this type of activity is contrary to UL’s rules, the company said “We decided to remove the names of the models concerned and remove them from our performance ranking.”

Based on its own tests, UL has removed the following models:

Huawei P20 Pro

Huawei Nova 3

Honor Play.

Based on AnandTech’s tests, UL has also removed the Huawei P20.

Huawei has issued the following statement:

“Huawei still favors the user experience rather than looking for high benchmark scores, especially since there is no direct link between smartphone testing and experiences. user. Huawei smartphones use advanced technologies such as AI to optimize hardware performance including CPU, GPU and NPU.

“When someone launches a photo application or plays a graphic game, Huawei’s intelligent software creates a fluid and stable user experience by applying all the hardware features while simultaneously managing the temperature and energy efficiency of the device.” apparatus. For less power-hungry applications than web browsing, they will only allocate the resources needed to deliver the required performance.

“In normal benchmarking scenarios, once Huawei’s software recognizes a benchmarking application, it adapts intelligently to” performance mode “and provides optimal performance. Huawei plans to provide users with access to “Performance Mode” so they can use the maximum power of their device when they need it.

“Huawei, as the industry leader, is ready to work with partners to find the best evaluation standards that can accurately assess the user experience.”

Adam Thrones is still early into his career as tech and digital marketing reporter but has already had his work published in many major publications including JoyStiq and Android Authority. In regards to academics, Adam earned a degree in business from Fordham University. Adam has a passion for emerging technology and writing on his blog. He is always eager about the new gadgets on the market and likes to cover updates on software.